❝Rethink❞ (BNHA x BSD)

♡ Chapter 8 ♥

I finally felt what must have been true peace. I had fought against a black-market dealer and done it the right way, or at least my way. Not the Port Mafia's way. Let's skip the part that I was associated with a criminal organisation myself. That needed some work.

The two men were lying on the floor in front of me. A coughing Akutagawa's Rashomon pulled away from their necks. He had a technique for making people unconscious by touching some of the pressure points on their neck. If he hadn't developed this technique, he would have killed them.

"I don't think they have backup but guard the door. I am almost done."

He returned to the back room.

"Akutagawa-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Why couldn't you just have done this to begin with?"

He emerged from the room. "Who knows, experience for you, I guess. A chance to prove yourself. And they have a problem with me going on solo missions."

As soon as he was done, we left and returned to the HQ. He also remembered to remove the device.

My first destination was Sir Nakahara's office. It was difficult to explain, but what I had done wasn't because of survival or following a mission. I did it out of my free will, and I was glad that I did it. I wanted to continue on this streak.

"I came to talk about my quirk."

He was shuffling through papers and didn't even glance up at me. "No need to talk about it today or any time soon. Do your best at school tomorrow."

"But we didn't even get to talk about a plan! And don't you want to know what my real quirk is?"

Now he looked up, revealing a smile. "I trust you, Eliana."

I was surprised. I listened to myself breathe for a while.

"Do well at school tomorrow."

~

I was indeed excited to go to school ever since that day. The exam was a bit annoying, yes, but the only thing I needed to worry about was the practical exam. I had decided to wing it, just like Sir Nakahara usually does. It's not like I actually had any info on the exact assignment and could plan ahead.

I was about to walk to lunch when Midoriya stopped me, holding two bento boxes.

"Um, Eliana, can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure," was my unusually accommodating answer.

He handed one of the bento boxes to me. We sat down opposite of each other in a lounge room he had booked in advance. This was all carefully planned.

He began, "So, to tell you the truth, Todoroki asked me to talk with you. He was really worried about you."

"Oh."

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, Eliana, but he's trying to help. He insisted that I talk to you because I helped him with his quirk back during the sports festival."

"Aaah, don't worry about it. I appreciate it." I smiled. He smiled back.

"So I'll make it easy for you, Midoriya," I said while unwrapping the bento, "since you're doing this for Todoroki. The reason I don't want to talk about my quirk is because it's not what everyone thinks it is."

"Oh, but how is this possible? Shouldn't the school know what your quirk is to some extent?"

"It's registered wrong from the beginning, and unfortunately it was intentional. Well, actually it was so that I wouldn't be targeted because of my quirk."

Needless to say he looked surprised. "Oh, wow, that must be so difficult, pretending that you have a quirk that you actually don't have."

"Something tells me you understand because you're in a similar situation."

"You're right. I was born quirkless and the quirk I have was actually given to me."

It was astonishing that arguably one of the best students in class 1-A wasn't born with a quirk. That meant that he had a huge disadvantage in terms of experience, kind of like I had.

"That sounds equally as difficult, Midoriya."

"But in my case I received it before entering this school, so I've only had problems with Kacchan."

We talked and ate the whole time and bonded over our somewhat similar situations. We parted on a warm fuzzy feeling, which ended the moment I felt a green checkmark pop up in my head. I had successfully befriended Midoriya for the mission.

After school I was sulking a bit in self-pity: I had finally made a friend, found someone I could trust, but it was ruined by the fact that it was a requirement for the mission.

I was walking down the hallway when I heard Todoroki's voice.

"Eliana?"

"Oh, I, uhm... Yeah?" I was so stuck in my own thoughts that it took a bit of time to react to what he had said.

"Are you worried about the exam?"

"A little bit, yeah," I admitted, although surprised because of the sudden question.

"Would you like to join my study group?" he asked seriously, but I could imagine action lines around him.

He must have remembered the time I went to their class to try to get closer to Bakugou using a maths problem. Although Todoroki's friendship was so close I could practically touch it, I followed my heart.

"Todoroki, I don't have problems with maths, I-"

"The subject doesn't matter. Would you like to join or not?" he persisted.

"Thanks, I'd love to!"

~

Todoroki lived in a huge Japanese style house. His sister had prepared food but left shortly after so I didn't get to meet the rest of his family. We ate in silence and then sat down to study.

"Which practice problems should we do first? Maybe Modern Literature?"

"Actually, Todoroki, could you teach me how to improve my quirk?"